There has never been a better time for being an employee. There are so many startups and companies cropping up in all the top cities in the world. There’s immense competition not only nationally, but internationally.

If you are an employee, you can smile. But if you are an employer, you need to pull your socks up and get good at hiring!

The hiring conundrum is made worse by funded companies that offer all sorts of perks and benefits to the employee. There’s talent war at every stage and between companies of all sizes. So how do you promote your company and pitch yourself to top talent?

You need to take extra efforts.

Current Hiring Scenario

This is the way a lot of hiring is done currently.

A HR team member, sends a template to a potential candidate via Linkedin, but first they send them a connect request on Linkedin.

Here is an example.

This is one of the many requests I’ve got on Linkedin. There are many things wrong with this.

I am not a blockchain expert

I’ve written one generic post about blockchain, that is because I write a lot of guest posts on various topics.

None of companies I’m affiliated with has anything to do with blockchain

I’m a product marketer and not a developer

This reachout got everything wrong.

This was a bad example, but this tells you a lot of things. If you want really top talent to join your business.

Don’t use a generic template

Skilled people get a lot of requests. They get headhunted more than others and they are used to receiving requests. A HR person also is looking to fill positions and they are focusing on automating as much as they can so they can fill the vacancies soon. Due to this, they use generic templates for every candidate irrespective of who they are reaching out to.

Don’t do this. Be different and come up with text that isn’t templated. Make sure to mention their work and maybe one of their articles or tweets. Personalize!

Using Social Networks for Reachout

The issue with reaching out through social networks is, there’s too much competition. This means, a lot of HR folk are reaching out to talent on Linkedin. You will be one among many who will be doing this.

Also, the fact that a potential candidate might not access Linkedin regularly and you have a time window for hiring. Also, people who are in existing jobs might not visit Linkedin that often because they don’t need to.

Use Cold Outreach

Using email to reach your potential candidate is a novel idea. A lot of people don’t do it and it has much more of a read rate than any other channels. People open their inboxes on a daily basis.

When you as a HR professional are reaching out, you can tag the CEO of your company and pitch the vision of the company. They are more likely to reply compared to other channels.

The Process

The best way to find email address of the prospects you are looking for is by using Linkedin. Find That Email is a solid tool that can do the job.

Click on the extension and you will be able to see their email address with other piece of information like in the screenshot below.

Once you’ve got the email address, it’s time to send an email. Here area few tips.

Don’t send a template, customize each email for every recipient.

Introduce yourself and your company.

Get to the point as to why you’ve reached out.

Pinpoint why they seem to be a perfect fit and that they’ve been selected among many.

Have a call to action suggestion that you meet or get on a call.

Tell them you have something exciting in store for them.

Most people are curious about future opportunities and potential. And people are more happier in companies that chase a big vision for the future.

Summary

Changing tactics and doing the unobvious can have its benefits. When most HR professional resort to spamming on Linkedin, you could actually try having a conversation with the prospective employee with the founder of your company and sell them the vision.